Unemployment by Constituency, January 2013

The number of people claiming JSA decreased by 12,100 between November and December 2012 to 1.56 million people aged 18 or over. The wider ILO measure of unemployment was 2.49 million in the period September to November 2012, a decrease of 37,000 from the last quarter and down 185,000 on the previous year. The unemployment rate was 7.7%.The number of people in employment was 29.68 million in September to November 2012, an all-time high. Employment increased by 90,000 compared to the previous quarter and 552,000 on the previous year. This is the largest annual increase in employment since 1989. The employment rate (the proportion of the population in work, taking population change into account) was 71.4%. This compares to a pre-recession level of 73.0% in March-May 2008.

Statistics on Jobcentre Plus vacancies were formerly included in Table 2 of this paper. Following the introduction of a new job search service by DWP from 19 November 2012, these statistics are no longer published and so are not included in this edition of Unemployment by Constituency.